Tobin again appeals phone-jamming charges

CONCORD, N.H. – A former national Republican Party official implicated in a five-year-old phone-jamming plot against New Hampshire Democrats is asking a federal appeals court for the second time to acquit him.

James Tobin of Bangor, Maine, this week appealed U.S. District court Judge Stephen McAuliffe’s recent orders that set the stage for Tobin’s new trial on phone harassment charges, scheduled to start Wednesday.

The move will likely delay the start of the trial since the appeals court set a March 17 deadline for paperwork.

Convicted in 2005 on the phone harassment charges, James Tobin faced 10 months in prison over his alleged role in jamming get-out-the-vote phone banks run by state Democrats and a nonpartisan Manchester firefighters union in 2002. Last year, a federal Court of Appeals in Boston overturned Tobin’s conviction and sent it back to U.S. District Court in Concord, saying McAuliffe’s jury instructions defining harassment were overbroad and prejudicial to Tobin.

In September, Tobin’s attorneys asked McAuliffe to acquit Tobin, saying his actions didn’t fit the statute and to try him again under the same statute would violate a constitutional guarantee against double jeopardy. McAuliffe has yet to rule on whether Tobin will be retried, but has nevertheless scheduled jury selection for Feb. 20.

Tobin was accused of helping to coordinate hang-up calls that jammed the phone banks for about 90 minutes on Election Day 2002, the year of a tough U.S. Senate race in which Republican John Sununu defeated former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat.

At the time, Tobin was a regional director for the Republican National Committee. He also worked on the National Republican Senatorial Committee, overseeing campaigns in several states, including New Hampshire and Maine.